Nara Thai, the place for Bangkok Street Food!

Last night, I had the honour of dining at Nara Thai, Ion courtesy of The Entertainer. I was busy with filming in the afternoon and was late for the dinner. 

#Sgeatwithus filmed a video for the making of these lovely Mango Tofu Cheesecake. I was starving at the end of the filming and was blessed with a good dinner at Nara Thai! 

The meal started with Barbecued Pork Neck with a tamarind dip.. this was really good. I'm not a fan of pork fats but I gladly ate this.. and enjoyed it! 

We also had crispy fried chicken with garlic.. I love fried garlic! 

We also had the Cha Om Omelette, akin to fuyong egg and I loved it.. It was savoured before I could take a shot! (: 

We also enjoyed the Assorted Grilled Seafood Platter.. it was HUGEEEEEEEEEE. 

There was the grilled seabass, grilled scallops (really yummy!), grilled prawns, grilled mussels and grilled squid. I like the dip that came with it.. it packed a nice punch without being too spicy! 

We had ours served in a smaller plate.. look at all that yummy food!

The meal was accompanied by fragrant jasmine rice. 

The seabass was nicely grilled and it was a good portion enough to feed 4 - 5 pax! 

My ultimate favourite has to be the dessert. Imagine a good scoop of coconut ice cream coupled with a slice of mango that has been caramelised (like that of a creme brule!)... the caramelised part was to die for... It was topped with a lovely basil sauce that added a nice touch to the dessert. I'd gladly return over and over again for the dessert alone! 

There are 2 outlets of Nara Thai that you can get your Bangkok Street Food feasts from.. ION Orchard and Westgate (: 

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Speaking of which.. The Entertainer is a membership that allows one access to many great deals all over the world. Locally, it allows users 1 for 1 deals in many restaurants and eating establishments across the island. It also offers 1 for 1 deals for spas... (I need this!) and hotels overseas.. You can view the membership details here: buy me! The hotel the hubby and I have booked for our trip next week is also in this list!!! A pity we have already made our bookings.. but then again, it's a sign..... a sign that we should travel more! 

They're also having a hot summer deal where you buy promotional rate hotel rooms.. buy 1 night and get another night free.. buy 2 nights at a hotel and get another 2 nights free.. or buy 3 nights and get another 3 nights absolutely free! 

The best part would be that these deals can be shared with your friends and loved ones! So do check out The Entertainer.. I'm gonna make some good plans with the 1 for 1 deals! (Think massages... and food!) 

Macaron Party!

This obsession with macarons started couple months back when I finally had a good batch of macarons after failures years back. It has since then blossomed into a mad obsession with character macarons. 

 These were the first of the many... It was the French method..

I then went all crazy and did some Tigger macarons. These were mad tricky as I toyed with royal icing to form the features on Tigger's face. 

Also did a little fun basic royal icing.

The next attempt was Pooh bear macarons. Those beady eyes!! (: 

I then tried some Hello Kitty bunny macarons. They weren't as pretty as I wish they were.. But it was my first attempt at using macaronage to do up features of Hello Kitty. 

I then got my tripod and did a video tutorial with these Matcha macarons. Also did Chocolate macarons that very day.

Then I did crazy flavours few days later.

The colours made me really happy. 

I even made them for an event.

Even Monster Inc coloured ones.

I then explore the Italian method with my new candy thermometer. These totoros were birthed!

They were just awfully adorable.

And as I found the Italian method too much of a hassle, I went back to the French method and made these Elmos and Cookie Monsters. 

And since my holidays are here... I went all out and did a whole range of macarons! 

It includes my favourite Mike of Monsters Inc. 

They were lots of fun.. I'm hoping to do more varieties... keep a look out for more! (: 

Steamed Milk Custard

I recently ordered these overly adorable glass jars from Taobao and I couldn't wait to use them over the weekend. I decided to make some Steamed Egg Custard with them.. I adopted the recipe from Christine's but I omitted the ginger.  Btw, my holidays are here!!!!!!! I'm super excited about the time that I'll gain baking and likely conducting small group classes.. 

Anyway, this was really simple to cook and it takes only merely 30 minutes to make.. I'd rate it a difficulty level 2 out of 5. 

3 ingredient Nutella Cheesecake

Today was a rather productive day. I indulged myself and had lots of fun in the kitchen. I baked Totoro Macarons, made Salted Caramel Sauce and baked a 3 ingredient Nutella Cheesecake. I adapted this recipe from Ochikeron's 3 ingredient cheesecake that uses white chocolate. In place of white chocolate, I used Nutella. 

I've not been too lucky with cheesecakes.. The few attempts of baked cheesecake had a kueh-like base which I didn't quite fancy. This recipe seemed easy enough and true enough, it was AMAZING. 

The steps are easy and it yields a cake that is soft, fluffy and almost souffle-like. It made me so excited to see it bake so beautifully! So I'm please to share this 3 ingredient Nutella Cheesecake with you! 

I'd rate this recipe a difficulty level 3 out of 5 and it takes about 1 h 15 mins in all to prepare and bake.

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

I saw a friend cooking salted caramel last night and I wanted to give it a try since 1) I was free 2) My kitchen was dirty from baking earlier on. I baked some Mini Red Velvet Roses earlier in the evening. 

Anyway, back to the Salted Caramel. It uses only 4 ingredients and I used the recipe from one of my favourite bloggers Sally's Baking Addiction. Boy was it easy!! Way easier than I thought it was and it took merely 10 minutes to cook. I'm dreaming of the things I could do with this salted caramel... cupcakes, cakes, bread, cheesecakes... (: I'd rate this recipe a difficulty level 2 out of 5 and it takes merely 10 minutes to prepare (:

Vitagen Ribena Cheesecake

Work has been insanely stressful today. Other than the regular workload, I have additional marking of exam scripts. It was insanely stressful this afternoon as I marked the P4 EL compos. So even though I got home late, I had my dinner and went into my kitchen. To me, my kitchen is my haven. Baking/Cooking brings me to another world where my worries melt away. I'm just thankful that I had some energy left in me to bake. 

Having had some Ribena left coupled with some fruits from baking my mummy and ma's cake over the weekend, I decided to do some of these Vitagen Ribena Cups. 

Btw, here are the cakes I baked for my mummy and ma over the weekend! (: 

Ma's Pandan Kaya Cake..

Mummy's Mango Mousse Cake

With a pretty box (:

Anyway, I love pretty cakes (: 

This recipe takes about 2 hours to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Red Spinach Tofu (Deep-fried)

I love spinach tofu, especially the ones from Jpot. I came across this recipe in the Singapore Home Cooks blog and decided to give it a try. My first try wasn't very successful due to various factors. I consulted a couple of friends and my mil and I tweaked the recipe. 

This dish is best eaten hot and even though it's a little troublesome to make, I'll do it all again. As some mentioned that spinach shouldn't be eaten with tofu, I've replaced it with red spinach. 

The steps are pretty simple even though it spans across 2 days.

The preparation takes about an hour, another 30 mins to cook and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. Click on for the full recipe!

Pandan Kaya using bread machine

Mummy loves kaya and this has been on list for a week or so... I finally got done to making this bottle of pandan kaya since I was free today. Gosh, the smell of freedom excites me. I slept early last night without setting an alarm for this morning. I had my fill of sleep so I was pumped up for baking. 

I made use of the bread machine the hubby got for me a long time ago. It's a Kenwood BM 250. I made use of the jam function to make this Kaya. This kaya is relatively simple to make and it's really fragrant. I'd rate it a difficulty level 2 out of 5 and it takes about 1.5 hours in all to make.